Content warning: Logan is a gang member and talks like one.
Logan Quinn, Distinct Five male (16)
A lot of crazy things happened in the Hunger Games but I never in my wildest dreams expected the giant spiders. I was running away from the Bloodbath after I grabbed a knife and a backpack when Bambi, who had run without grabbing anything and was thus ahead of me, got just freaking swallowed up by a spider that erupted from the ground like a hellborn demon. I fell smack on my backside, blurting gang-member language and scrabbling backwards a bit like a little kid.
HOLY SHIT, the words echoed in my mind over and over. Just HOLY SHIT!
Most of the other Tributes had the same thought. Chaos broke out for the second time since the gong sounded- Tributes running around willy-nilly, people jumping and tripping over each other, kids not knowing where to run with spiders on one side and the Careers on the other. Then one of the spiders snatched Olivine and all at once we realized the good side of all this. The other Careers quickly drew back into the Cornucopia and stayed there while they tried to figure out how to safely proceed. They were limited to only throwing ranged weapons and by the time they regrouped they were only able to snipe another two Tributes before the rest of us got away.
As for getting away, the secret turned out to be stupidly simple. I took off my shoe and tossed it forward. If there was no spider then nothing happened. When there was a spider it would pop out, find nothing there, and slink back into its hole. It still scared the crap out of me every time one popped out but I made it a good distance away from the Cornucopia and was far out of range before the Careers finally started making their moves.
As I expected, a lot of the Games was downtime. The Careers were out hunting but they couldn't be everywhere all the time and it was hard to sweep the tall grass for hiding Tributes. The only action I had in the first week was when Luxen tried to ambush me. He may have been smarter than me but I was stronger than him. Usually there are no real winners in a knife fight but I certainly won that one.
The Games might have turned out a lot differently if I hadn't been in a gang. Bonds forged in blood go a long way, even as far as the Hunger Games. When I got the sponsor gift I opened it to find a canister that looked almost like a hand grenade. I thought it was a hand grenade until I read the label.
BUG BOMB
Great… but how do I get it in?
Big risk, big reward. I wracked my brain to pull up an exact image of how big the spiders were. Once I was confident I stood just outside of range and tossed my shoe toward a spider I'd already spotted. The spider erupted from the hole, all nasty hairy black legs and jittering eyes. It honestly threw me for a loop but I forced myself past it to pull the trigger on the canister and throw it into the pit. I expected to feel thrashing or hear the spider screaming or something but there was nothing at all. The gas must have been painless.
The label on the can said the gas would disperse in two hours. It took me a lot longer than that to wedge my fingers into the circle I could barely see marked into the soil and peel it up. You have to, I told myself. Do this or die. But it took a long time to quell the images in my mind- thoughts of me going into that pit. Closing the lid and sealing myself into the dark. Pressing up against the thing. Sitting in a pitch-black pit with a dead monster. The more arrogant part of me wanted to brush it off and say I'd seen way worse things in the gang. It would have been a lie.
I was almost hyperventilating as I slid into the pit. I closed my eyes and shut off my thoughts when my leg brushed against a cold, hairy mass. I didn't think about dead open eyes pointed at me. About a body the size of an ox curled behind me on its back, its legs folded grotesquely and hanging limp in the air. About the thrashing it must have thrashed when it died black legs raking the sides of the pits raking the area I was sitting right now.
Being in the pit was easier when I didn't think. I was nothing but an animal trying to stay alive. I did it by sitting in my lair and listening. The thin roof of the pit made vibrations stand out so clearly. I could see exactly how the spider would wait for someone to pass by and then drag them under to impale them. I could see how because when Velvet walked by that's exactly what I did.